THE AMERICAN Chamber of Commerce in India (AMCHAM) feels that the Uttar Pradesh Government needs to do more than merely publicising efforts to attract new industrial projects to the state.

THE AMERICAN Chamber of Commerce in India (AMCHAM) feels that the Uttar Pradesh Government needs to do more than merely publicising efforts to attract new industrial projects to the state.

“The Uttar Pradesh Government must establish a Development Office each in New Delhi and Mumbai which could seriously look at inviting proposals for new industrial projects to the state. Talking about the government’s efforts to attract more industrial investments to the state through large publicity campaigns no longer helps as people don’t go by platitudes. They (people) understand what the government had actually achieved in the past”, AMCHAM’s Vice-Chairman Amrit Kiran Singh told Hindustan Times in an interview.

He said that Uttar Pradesh was still doing what Gujarat adopted as a strategy to attract foreign investment during 1980s. “Gujarat heavily publicised investment opportunities existing in that state during the 1980s and later worked hard to actually bring both foreign and domestic investors to the state”, Singh said.

“Let the officials from the Uttar Pradesh Government interact with AMCHAM for identifying potential investors keen on setting up projects in Uttar Pradesh. Unless government officials chase investors in Delhi and Mumbai for persuading them to establish new projects, Uttar Pradesh would not be able to attract new industrial projects to the state”, Singh said.

A flood of foreign investments flowing into the southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had been the result of governments in these states working towards making the investors actually understand the benefits of setting up projects in these states, he said.

Expressing his resentment over the brouhaha being raised on “Foreign Direct Investment” (FDI) in India by the left-parties, Singh commented: While the activities of Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) leave a negative impact on the stock markets, FDI does not impede economic growth. It’s time the government regulated the FIIs and not the FDI investments waiting to some to India”.

He said that even in the worst case scenario such as Enron where some wrong decisions by its top executive brought down the fortunes of the company, the Maharashtra Government had been able to utilise the power plant infrastructure for brining the project back on track.

“The FIIs would keep coming to India and reap benefits as they are averse to invest in Europe with an ageing population. India is a huge opportunity for the FIIs as nearly 70 per cent of its population is below the age of 34 years with a great spending power in their hands”, Singh added.